The Changing Reference Collection - from a Collection Development Point of View ALA Annual 2002 RUSA CODES Margaret Landesman Head, Collection Development Marriott Library University of Utah

Collections are changing: In ways libraries choose In ways libraries don’t choose

Collections adding: Fewer books Fewer foreign titles Less retrospective purchasing Less microform

Make choices conscious ones Clearly choose directions. Add the best of the new good stuff and save the best of the old good stuff.

Danger of creating collections which are: Aging and marginally useful. Still absorbing money and space.

Collection Development’s view: Collection Development observes: Who are we buying for? What do we buy? Reasons for buying.

Books Who? Everybody. Requests often urgent. Libraries creating new procedures to get books into hands of user faster.

Serials Who? Faculty. Considerable urgency. Requestors follow through. Serials cancellations make it evident how badly our users want serials.

Databases, electronic resources Who? Faculty, librarians, users, salespeople. Requestor follow through far beyond that for other materials, frequently daily.

Reference works Who? Reference Librarians. Urgency - not high. Can it wait? Yes.

Why don’t more users ask for reference titles? Users look for books and journals. The connection between a reference work and a user is a reference librarian. What happens when users don’t come to the desk?

Will users find reference titles? ‘Name brand’ titles - OED, Groves, CRC - users will find. Others - those titled, “Encyclopedia of…”, maybe not

Do Reference Librarians use reference collections ? Reference librarians ask to be close to their reference collections. Fewer sightings of them actually in the reference stacks. Chat reference - work from offices, even when far from Reference Collections.

In tight budget times: Titles on want lists, on ‘waiting for end of the year’ pools, are at risk of not getting purchased.

Other forces Growing prices of bundled products. Conversion of one-time to on-going costs. Growing technical infrastructure costs.

Growing prices of bundled products Bundles getting more and more expensive, eating up more of total available. Bundles - number of titles up, cost per title down, total cost up.

One-time to on-going costs Inevitable corollary: If expenditure does not rise, the number of titles purchased will fall. Reference works put on serials budget have newfound security, the rest are at risk.

Growing technical infrastructure costs Library expenses for technology are rising. Electronic collections are of no use unless the infrastructure is working. Funding technology infrastructure now top priority.

An analogy, the mortgage First pay the mortgage. Then pay utility bills. When they get too high, can conserve to lower them. Then buy food and clothes. Food is a necessity, but quality and quantity can vary with inhabitants starving.

For libraries... The mortgage was the serials bill. Now it’s technology infrastructure. Utilities, impossible to do without, but can cut back. That's serials. Food budget. Not a lot left. Looks like eating at McDonalds. That’s the book and reference budget.

Lower the mortgage? In theory, a library could move to a smaller house. Are any considering this? Libraries are refinancing mortgages to build Information Commons, electronic classrooms, and coffee shops.

What follows for reference? Plan to create a small but vital, attractive, useful, print reference collection. Create a similar larger online collection. Find ways to move the collections into the mainstream of student/faculty life. Use vision and ingenuity to do it, because there’s not a lot of money.

Conclusion If there is going to be a rosy future for reference collections, reference librarians will need to create it.